One more cricketing disaster brings forth another knee-jerk response from the BCCI. But here's how it could work.

Three years back, India’s aging heroes were receiving the bashing of a lifetime at the Oval. As MS Dhoni’s bowling options wore thin, Ravi Shastri asked Sourav Ganguly a question on air: “Where is India’s next crop of pacers coming from?”

Ganguly doddered through his answer. Perhaps, he should have let Shastri answer it himself, since the irony of the question had escaped him. In the three years leading to India’s wipe-outs in England and Australia, Shastri was the chairman of the National Cricket Academy, that cradle of talent now reduced to a glorified infirmary.

In his time at the NCA, Shastri had done naught of note, even failing to attend important meetings. And hence we heard that uninformed utterance to Ganguly. But as consumers of his commentary would tell you, one doesn’t actually have to follow Indian cricket daily to be speaking about it.

Today, India beat England at Lord's. India had last won a Test match at Lord's way back in June 1986. We compared that five-wicket win over the 95-run one scored on Monday night. Some stunning parallels emerge.

A look at Murali's travails with Australia, the country that once labelled him a cheat, the country he will now help learn spin bowling.

Sri Lanka spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan has been named part of Australia’s coaching staff for the upcoming tour of the UAE where they play Pakistan.

Muralitharan, who retired from international cricket in 2011 with a world record 1347 wickets across formats, has had a trying relationship with Australia. His problems with Australia, nearly all to do with his controversial bowling action, threatened to rip his career apart even before it had started taking shape.

We recount the moments of controversies between Murali and Australia.

BOXING DAY, 1995

In front of a crowd of 55,000 at the MCG, umpire Darrell Hair started no-balling Muralitharan from the bowler’s end. Hair had not no-balled him from square leg. Initially, the no-balls were thought to be crease violations. But it gradually dawned on everyone that Murali was being for chucking. Captain Arjuna Ranatunga decided to consult the team management after which Murali was bowled from Steve Dunn’s end. He was not no-balled again.

With his history of conflicting interests, N. Srinivasan’s boundary issues make the Kashmir problem seem mild. One thought that Justice A.K. Patnaik’s almighty lashing—embellished with the words “filthy” and “nauseating”—would have taught him caution. But this week’s events reveal that his shadow still looms over the workings of the board; that the board has no intention of minimising conflicts of interest that have allowed the corrupt to get away with the murder of cricket.

On Sunday, the BCCI named a three-man panel that would investigate the spot-fixing scandal in the 2013 IPL. The names of the three men: RK Raghavan, JN Patel and Ravi Shastri. [Update: Thankfully, the Supreme Court has shot down this panel.]

We’ve seen in the past that 'fixing' these probe panels prevents meaningful investigation. Shastri has been, out and out, a BCCI man. As a paid commentator for matches produced for the Indian board, his job has been to shape favourable public opinion of his employer.

"I would not talk about anyone who is playing for India, but I do feel I am still the best in the business. I still have a lot to offer and see myself playing at the highest level for at least three to four years."

Here's a list of the top wicket-takers in the last Ranji Trophy who are spinners:

And here's the same list from the previous season:

And here's the list of India's top Test spinners:

Here's my question to you. When do you suppose we can see you stop talking and start performing?

Through the course of Day 4 in the Wellington Test, the focus kept returning to Brendon McCullum as he passed milestone after milestone. A drive through the covers brought up his 150. A whip through square leg delivered his third 200, all of them against India. A powerful pull for six to the same area brought up his 250. But even as he passed these milestones in the course of a scarcely believable fight-back with BJ Watling, the predominant expression on his face was of pain.

The pain in his back. The pain in his shoulders. The pain in his knee. And the pain of knowing that though he had braved it for 12 hours, he couldn’t savour the sweetness of his achievements till his team was secure. At stumps, the New Zealand captain could afford to smile a little. They are now 325 ahead with little chance of losing a game that seemed lost yesterday.